Sunday, 13 November 2011

Watsons My Vanity Box

Recently, Watsons has jazzed up its selection of beauty brands with the introduction of its new My Vanity Box section. Currently available at its stores in Ngee Ann City, Bugis Junction, Jurong Point, IMM and Holland Village, My Vanity Box presents an array of niche brands offering the latest trends in makeup and nails. China Glaze probably needs no introduction, given its popularity. Made in the US, the brand is known for its porcelain shine and rich formulas made with China clay as a harderner. Its nailpolishes are free of DBP, toluene and formaldehyde. Shown below is Skyscraper from the Metro collection, a dark violet chock full of silver glitter. My favourite shade is Ruby Pumps, which is the perfect Christmas red with a lively ruby sparkle.The regular nailpolishes retail at S$18 while the crackle nailpolishes are S$19 each.While it's great that Watsons has made the brand much more accessible in Singapore, I think they could have priced it more competitively vis-à-vis the other sources available to savvy shoppers here.

Paperself eyelashes (S$29.90) are fascinatingly delicate lashes inspired by the art of Chinese paper-cutting and made in the UK from FSC-certified paper. ("FSC" stands for the Forest Stewardship Council, which assesses whether the wood is harvested in an environmentally-responsible manner.) Paperself has both partial and full lash designs, featuring motifs such as seahorses, butterflies and peonies. To make an even more dramatic statement with the lashes, there is Star Lash, a range of hand-crafted eyelashes made in Korea with synthetic fibres. Each Star Lash set is re-usable for more than 10 times and retail from $8.90 to $26.90.

For healing chapped and chronically dry lips, there is Dr. Lipp Original Nipple Balm for Lips (S$18, 15ml), which was originally used by nursing mothers for sore nipples. Made in the UK and comprising 100% medical grade lanolin, the thick glossy balm supposedly moisturises skin by up to 40% in one hour and is free from alcohol, parabens, coloring agents and perfume. Aside from the lips, it can also be used on other parts of the body, such as the cuticles, feet and elbows. Although it is supposed to be odorless, I find that it has a strong plasticky scent when first applied, but thankfully this wears off quickly. And for the truly adventurous, Violent Lips offers vitamin-enhanced vegan temporary lip tattoos in a wide variety of patterns and finishes. Retailing from $19.90 to $20.90 for a pack of three, these last between four to eight hours and are removable with baby oil or makeup wipes. Are there any brands that you would like to see at Watsons? My wish would be for Visee and Wet'n'Wild to make it to our shores next!

Guess the brands that we don't get locally always look more attractive! Wet'n'Wild has interesting shades that one rarely finds among Asian brands, which tend to do gradational shade combinations to death. Nevertheless, I am glad that we get so many more Asian brands in our Watsons stores here than just a few years ago.